Surveyor 3

NSSDC ID: 67-035A-01

Description:
Surveyor 3 was the second spacecraft in the Surveyor series to
acheive a soft landing on the lunar surface. The main purpose of
the mission was to determine various characteristics of the lunar
terrain in preparation for Apollo lunar landing missions. Equipment
on board included a television camera and auxiliary mirrors, a soil
mechanics surface sampler, strain gages on the spacecraft
landing legs, and numerous engineering sensors. The spacecraft
was launched into a selenographic trajectory on April 17, 1967,
and landed on the moon at 2.94 deg s latitude, 23.34 deg w
longitude in the southeastern part of Oceanus Procellarum on
April 20, 1967. Touchdown on the lunar surface occurred three
times because the Vernier engines continued to fire during the
first two touchdowns causing the spacecraft to lift off the surface.
A large volume of new data on the strength, texture, and structure
of lunar material was transmitted by the spacecraft, in addition to
the lunar photography transmission. The last data were returned
on May 4, 1967. 


Launch Information:
Launch Date/Time: 1967-04-17 at 07:05:00 UTC
Launch Site/Country: Cape Canaveral, United States
Launch Vehicle: Atlas-Centaur